NASA has successfully opened a canister containing precious asteroid dust samples that are about 4.6 billion years old. The canister, which landed in the Utah desert in September 2023, had held samples collected from the asteroid Bennu by NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft in 2020. While most of the samples were retrieved easily, some material remained trapped within the canister’s sampler head. After months of determined effort, NASA’s team successfully removed the two final stubborn fasteners, allowing them to access the remaining dust. The announcement of this achievement was met with excitement within the scientific community, and NASA’s planetary science division declared the news on Twitter. According to NASA, the remaining sample material includes dust and rocks up to about 0.4 inch in size. The final mass of the sample will be determined in the coming weeks. The collected asteroid material surpasses the agency’s goal, and the curation team will release a catalog of all the Bennu samples later this year, allowing scientists and institutions worldwide to submit requests for research or display.
